We have all become aware of our fragility

by Gabriele Cantaluppi

Antoine de Saint Exupéry, the author of the famous The Little Prince, wrote that «if you want to build a boat, don't worry so much about gathering men to collect wood, prepare tools, assign tasks and distribute work. Instead, try to awaken in them the nostalgia of the sea and its boundless grandeur." That nostalgia for a simpler life, which we had forgotten about, which the experience of the lockdown from which we are gradually emerging, has developed in us. Choices and habits will change and we will find ourselves different, reinvigorated, but above all kinder and more generous towards our world and the people who inhabit it. At least we hope so! 

These are the traits that emerged from a series of interventions, requested by the newspaper "Avvenire", giving voices to people who have lived this experience in their daily lives, including at work.

This has been the recurring theme: we have all become aware of the fragility of our human beings. The image of a nurse is beautiful: «We already knew that we are like autumn leaves on the trees. But we weren't ready to see so many leaves falling all at once."

A High Commissioner of the UN Refugee Agency refers back to the biblical experience of the Tower of Babel and hopes that «it will be an opportunity to learn to respect other human beings, whoever they may be. It's as if the Lord had made us see the other side of the coin of the world: not only the "beautiful", but also what is uncomfortable and fragile."

The "retreat", the "seclusion" of the past weeks have become the rediscovery of the interior life, of the relationship with God in prayer, even for those dedicated to this task, like a nun: «I experienced a spiritual blackout: precisely in moment of greatest difficulty I was unable to pray. it is in that long dark hour that I rediscovered the meaning of my entire vocation: service to others." 

Attention to others spurs the need to do something, not to resign oneself to the logic of impossibility. Everyone is committed, with their own talents. 

A singer: «All this reminded me why I make music, it gave it a deeper meaning, it reconnected me to the desire to write songs in which everyone can recognize their feelings». For some doctors: «The epidemic was a stimulus to look for new solutions to protect patients and our work. With colleagues we have created an "app" that allows us to manage and monitor our patients at home."

The mass media helped to have a look beyond the walls of the house for those who were able to listen to Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini's advice to use them «sparingly, as women do with geraniums in spring. Carefully remove the dried programs from the television bush, reflect on the flowers that remain." So that «instead of complaining about missing my friends, I started video calling them and I realized that those who really care never stop being present» is the experience of a high school senior.

The lived experience is also an opportunity to rejuvenate. Two elderly spouses discover that «we have strengthened the understanding that our life has been a time of grace and in this light we value the years that remain to us» because the years of life are like a box of biscuits: «at the beginning they are eaten in hurry, because there are many; then, as few remain, you go slower to enjoy them better."

È  It's important to get used to the changes. «Then I learned something else. That you need to have the ability to change your plans as you go and be able to adapt to changes that don't depend on your will" is the experience of a young athlete.

An eight-year-old Milanese boy discovers that «man is the only living being who knows how to adapt. The headmistress of my school said this. In my opinion it is important."

Undoubtedly, as also appeared from some banners displayed in public, we have become aware of the importance of solidarity. 

For the police forces "the virus has taken a lot from us, but it has also given us a new awareness: that the boats to navigate in the storm must not only be solid, but must have a crew where everyone brings their contribution".

For a mayor "in the most difficult moments when there seemed to be no solution to the contingent problems, a person, a company, someone capable of providing indispensable collaboration, an unexpected donation, the arrival of volunteers suddenly entered my life".  An anti-mafia magistrate is convinced that «we have rediscovered our community belonging by feeling part of a single great reality, according to that model of "circular legality" that our founding fathers dreamed of: freedom and equality are rights that exist together precisely thanks to the duty to solidarity". 

È  also the opportunity to experience simple but profound joys. «When we go to customers behind the masks, we find smiles and emotion, infinitely more precious than what we collect» confesses a bookseller. «In this period nothing was more exciting than the moment in which, together with a colleague, we saw our first patient walking after a week of immobility in intensive care. A few days before Easter, it was the first light" exclaims a physiotherapist.

In the midst of so many "withouts", have we also noticed some positive signs, some hope for a slightly better future?

Perhaps the best response is that of an actor: «The Pope's silence, in the prayer of March 27, remained in my heart. If in the future we manage to live our time like this, without letting ourselves be crushed by the frenetic pace, we will be able to give ourselves and others unexpected joys."